D&D General Destroying Rome?

[Demetrios1453]

I don't know if it's even stupid as history--history's a lot more contingent than we think, and there's no reason the Romans couldn't have been wiped out, changing the course of history forever.

Whatever the historical inaccuracy, it's AMAZING as a game idea. Good excuse to go back and read every Greek mythology book you've got. Mythic Odysseys of Theros is the obvious starting off point. I've seen an OSR game, Mazes & Minotaurs, that does 'what if D&D was based on ancient Greece not medieval Europe' you might also want to mine for ideas. Going a little farther afield, Conan games are usually supposed to mimic the ancient rather than medieval world and might also be good sources to steal from. It's D&D, not history.

There are many classic Greek monsters already in the game like harpies, manticores, griffins, sphinxes, giants, and centaurs, and in some editions cyclopes; you could flesh those out into complete societies with a few different cultures. There's also the singular creatures D&D turned into monster species like the Minotaur, Medusa (one of 3), Lamia, Chimera, and Hydra; you could also expand on Echidna, Scylla and Charybdis, Cerberus, Python the serpent, the Colchian dragon, the Nemean Lion, the man-eating horses of Diomedes, the Stymphalian birds, sirens,
D&D with its polytheism is in some ways a better fit for the ancient than the medieval world religiously if not technologically.

If you're nuts enough you can serve Mediterranean food instead of pizza--ancient Greeks had grapes, olives, and cheese, all of which are able to be eaten as snacks instead of the traditional chips or pretzels. They drank wine, but you may not want drunk players, especially if you have to drive home...but you could do grape juice.

Pizza is an ancient food - they definitely had flatbread with toppings, just no tomato sauce.

 

[Bluenose]

432BC is just in time for the start of the Peloponnesian War, which might make uniting Greece quite hard. The Romans are at war (as always) against some of the Etruscans. Bear in mind they aren't the only people in the west who the Greeks might be fighting against - Carthage, the Etruscan League, the Samnites, and even the Gauls from further north or if you find yourself around Massilia. It might be interesting to try uniting the Greek cities in the west against "the barbarians" and then return to mainland Greece and impose a peace on the warring city states. Certainly seems like an interesting concept.

 

[Krachek]

Alternate history is fun for dnd.
Pyrrhus could have win over the Roman in their early history,
as well as Hannibal could have take down Rome.
in all case the Italic peninsula make a formidable stronghold for a new ruling civilization, and power would shift there eventually unless the DM shape this advantage differently.

 

[Ancalagon]

So I'm running an ancient Greek campaign set around 432 BC on an alternate earth. I've tweaked some events eg instead of Persians invading it was the Zaharans. Zahar is basically Sumerian/Arkadia so



The dates a bit vague but said invasion was 50ish years ago. Anyway the theme of the game is Fate of Atlantis. The weapons and equipment us ancient greek era but the Atlanteans have things like full plate.

They're currently near Delphi and are uncovering the manipulation of the Pithia (the prophet of Apollo). It's possible they prevent the Peloponnesian war equivalent.

Bit old school by the time they're done they'll be name level. And possibly have Atlantean artifacts, weapons, armor etc.

They've meet a merchants who's been to Latium. It's "full of barbarians who will never amount to much". One of them joked they coukd go there and found their own Domains via conquest.

So I'm thinking they could unite the Greek world and found something like the Byzantine Empire 700 years earlier. The heartland would be Greece and Asia Minor but back then the Greek world also included colonies in France, Italy, Black Sea, Libya etc.

Thoughts to on the nose, fun, stupid idea?

a few comments

1: Loooove alternate earth campaign. I did a big one in Zeugma, where the city survived longer than it did in real life, in 1150. In mine, atlantis falling was an important aspect, because the survivors of atlantis went to found egypt and were "immortal" elves.

2: The byzantine empire is the roman empire. a very minor quibble, but one worth noting.

3: The Rome foundation myths were a bit mixed up (as they tend to be), but a fascinating element to me is the "survivors of the war of troy" aspect. I think you can take that part and reaaaaly run with it

 

[Zardnaar]

a few comments

1: Loooove alternate earth campaign. I did a big one in Zeugma, where the city survived longer than it did in real life, in 1150. In mine, atlantis falling was an important aspect, because the survivors of atlantis went to found egypt and were "immortal" elves.

2: The byzantine empire is the roman empire. a very minor quibble, but one worth noting.

3: The Rome foundation myths were a bit mixed up (as they tend to be), but a fascinating element to me is the "survivors of the war of troy" aspect. I think you can take that part and reaaaaly run with it

Well Troy here could be an Atlantean rump state.

Theoretically the could short circuit the Peloponnesian war, get the Pithia onside and two of them represent Gaia and Artemis.

Elves are rare they're children of Aphrodite.

 

[Storyteller Hero]

The most dangerous enemies in war are the ones who sit next to you in governance of the country.

Many a leader of empires like Rome fell to internal conflicts. This can be an excellent source of plot hooks for a DnD campaign.

 

[Audiomancer]

I would be 100% fine with my players destroying Rome.

After all, what have the Romans ever done for us?

 

[Zardnaar]

I would be 100% fine with my players destroying Rome.

After all, what have the Romans ever done for us?

Something, something, aquaducts, something, something.

 

[kigmatzomat]

I would be 100% fine with my players destroying Rome.

After all, what have the Romans ever done for us?

While I know it's a facetious/sarcastic question, it is worth thinking about the impact of Rome on the broad stroke of history and gaming assumptions.

So the short answer is they created Europe, particularly western Europe, as you know it. Therefore Rome is baked into everything D&D is based on. Whether it is influencing migration along the Danube, creating the foundation of the feudal system & serfdom, bringing chivalric knights (equestrian-class cataphracts) to the Atlantic coast or building a road network that underpins a huge swath of the European transportation system, pretty much all pre-modern socio-economic aspects of Europe are due to Rome. And let us not forget being pivotal in the creation & promulgation of christianity, the genesis of the rabbinical form of judaism or providing much of the conditions required for Islam to flourish.

I can't say how a world without Rome would look but it's clear that absolutely nothing today would look as it is if Rome had fallen to Carthage. Imagine if the Europeans who had arrived in China, Japan, Korea, India, Australia or the Americas were woad-wearing Celts rather than the Europeans who inherited the ideals of empire.

Which of course means it's all fertile ground for a game setting.

 

[Mars Hall]

I didn't want to use Theros I don't think it's very good as a not Greek setting.

It's a good product but I wanted something grittier.

Have you checked out Arkadia?